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Telegram - a mode of communication which i have never used in my life till date.Now, that its services are officially closed ( the exact date being 15 july, 2013) I will never be able to use in future too.
It was evening news cum tea time when the channel aired the show 'TATA TELEGRAM' - on which telegram's history- geography -and every other subject was discussed.
(Telegram services functioned in India for 163 years..Whoa!)
I felt a a small sad tug in heart..silly me. telegram was there for so long and i dint even give a second look , but now that its gone ..i am dearly wishing to have had availed the service - send some telegrams to few of my favorite people -- just as some kind of memorabilia.
arrrghh..i groaned inwardly..i should have acted when it was still time... well, am not surprised, that's me 100% ! :/
' i really wish i could have send one to ammachi !' i said out loud. Ammachi is my only living grandparent- my mother's mom.
'Thank God, you dint' came my mother's curt reply.
why? I am sure she would have loved it...
she would ..if only she would be patiently calm enough to know the content (message) of the telegram!!
what??
'I'll tell you why' said my dad coming into the convo.
( By this time he had finished his daily quota of news and tea )
' In olden times,continued my dad; 'whenever the postman used to come and shout "Telegraaaaamm"
( he had a unique way of saying it ) everyone around would go to a state of panic. Most of the ladies ;especially old , would start crying even before the receiver of the telegram could tear it open with high heart beat and trembling hands...because for them telegram mostly brought bad news. This was because many men of different families were in the military and telegram from the army means -bad news. Good news used to come but very few. The postman's telegraaaaaam used to make people lose their face's colour, their heart 's skip a beat while their lips sent anxious prayers to heaven. And.. Oh what a relief when it was Good news!'
Knowing about the past was nice...but still i couldn't remove the wishful feeling bugging inside of me..
i wish i could send one telegraaamm..just for the sake of using it..i should have done it...ohhh why am i thinking of it now??? why could this thought come to me before..etc etc**@@**
I am getting that feeling nagging me even now as i am posting it...
P.S : (i have used this service before,but still) I have decided to write inland letters to some of my favorite people instead of e-mailing them --who knows when that service will be declared dead forever !!!.
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| pic source : Google images |
“The postman fishing out a telegram from his satchel is an abiding image in many of our earlier movies, at least for those of us of a certain age,” an editorial in The Hindustan Times reads. “The recipient would tear it open with trembling hands, for there was always an element of urgency about a telegram.”
